October 16 2006
Davao City, Philippines
The 3rd Congress of the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) was successfully held in Davao City from 12-14 October 2006. 7 people’s lawyers from Belgium, Brazil, India, Netherlands and Turkey and 1 activist law student from Afghanistan participated as foreign delegates.
17 people’s lawyers coming from different human rights law offices and groups from Cordillera, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao City, Iloilo and Metro Manila, comprised the Philippine delegation led by the Public Interest Law Center (PILC).
An additional 7 human rights lawyers from Bataan, Cotabato City, Davao City, Digos City and Panay in the Philippines joined as observers during the country reports and the discussion and adoption of resolutions.
Other human rights or people’s lawyers from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Indonesia, Iraq, Germany, Iraq, Nepal, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, United Kingdom, and the United States could not make it due to unavailability of resources, conflicts of schedule or visa problems.
The National Host Secretariat was composed of volunteers coming from human rights and people’s organizations like the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS)-Philippines, PILC, Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL), Bayan Muna (People First), Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (SENTRA), and the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE).
The foreign delegates immediately visited the wake and strongly condemned the brutal murder of an activist bishop from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church), Alberto Ramento, who is the 763th victim of state terrorism.
They also visited the office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-Nominated Section to the Joint Secretariat (JS) of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) between the government and NDFP and were briefed about its work, the status of the peace negotiations, and the complaints filed.
The delegates expressed dismay at the non-convening of the JMC due to the refusal of the government to address the hundreds of complaints and to jointly form fact-finding missions to look into the spate of disappearances of activists and peace negotiators and some specific cases of summary executions perpetrated by forces linked to the government.
In Davao City, they were met by the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) and were briefed about its work and the local human rights situation in Mindanao. The Local Host Secretariat was headed by UPLM and supported by the InPeace Mindanao and other volunteers from people’s organizations in Mindanao. Veteran human rights lawyer Atty. Fred Gapuz, UPLM Chairperson, welcomed the foreign and Filipino delegates.
PLACE, SENTRA, UPLM and individual people’s lawyers from Cordillera, Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao were admitted to be part of the official Philippine delegation upon recommendation by the PILC and its admission as members of the IAPL de-facto Philippine Chapter. Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Secretary-General of the Philippine human rights organization Karapatan, also attended in her capacity as Cooperator of IAPL.
The Presidium for the Congress was composed of Julio Moreira of Brazil, Raf Jespers of Belgium, and Edre U. Olalia of the Philippines.
The Congress took up the main points reached during the 2nd Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, accepted the reports of the President, Secretariat and Treasurer, made a thorough and candid assessment of its work and activities during the past 3 years and made specific and concrete plans for the next 3 years particularly with respect to expansion work, organizational coordination and financial sourcing. Considering the need to organize more people’s lawyers, priority shall be given to real expansion work.
The Congress elected a new set of officers for the next 3 years: Olalia as President; Moreira as Vice-President; Jespers as Secretary-General; Dundar Gurses of Netherlands as Treasurer; and Hakan Karakus of Turkey as Auditor. Nepal and Afghanistan were also elected to sit in the Board of Governors with Honorary Chairperson Sebastian Pellisery of India.
IAPL Convenor and Founding Member Judge Romeo T. Capulong was elected to be IAPL’s first Eminent Person. The other foreign delegates were Jo Dereymaeker of Belgium, Samina Kabir of Afghanistan, Arzu Bozbey of the Netherlands, and Aliyah Elizabeth Brunner from Turkey.
The country delegates submitted and presented their respective country reports on the human rights situation, the responses of people’s lawyers and the prospects of organizing people’s lawyers. Common experiences were noted with respect to the onslaught of imperialist attacks; the evil effects of foreign intervention, occupation and aggression by the United States and other countries; the diminution of civil and political rights through existing and new repressive and fascist legislation through the so-called “anti-terrorism laws” and other measures and particularly on minorities and immigrants; as well as the physical and political attacks on people’s lawyers.
Various resolutions were proposed by the country delegations and adopted by consensus by the Congress including supporting the struggle for democracy and against fundamentalism and against the attacks on prominent member of Parliament, Malalai Joya and other women victims of state terror from Afghanistan; the launching of a campaign by progressive lawyers to repeal and stop anti-terrorism laws in Europe from Belgium and the Netherlands; an urgent and immediate appeal to the Indian President to stop the impending execution of Mohd. Afzal Guru. The Congress likewise adopted resolutions from Turkey that condemned the continuing torture and isolation F-type prison cells, the repressive new executive penal code and the US attacks especially on civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.
